Currys are sending people to manufacturers directly - SOGA? **RESOLVED NEW ONE ARRIVED**

[pgregg]

In July 2014 I bought a Vax vacuum cleaner from Currys online, delivered to the store for pickup, at £49.99 (yes, ok cheap vacuum)

Yesterday the motor burned out - terrible noise accompanied by a burning smell.

 

Fair enough, things break and it is only 10 months old. Currys will do the right thing, I figured. £50 wasn't worth Mr. repairman assessing it and they'd just exchange - guess not.

 

today I packed it up in the original box, along with my delivery receipt and took it to the nearest Currys superstore.

 

Explained the situation and the Knowhow guy explained I had to take it home and phone a number (for Vax) and they would send someone out to assess it, repair or replace

- depending on if they thought I'd abused it in any way.

 

Apparently they have "agreements" in place with many manufacturers (especially white goods) and this is how they do things.

 

Now I've had dealings with white goods companies and generally there is a call out fee you have to pay if they ultimately decide it's you're own fault. I really didn't fancy having all that hassle.

 

the point of this post:

Are Currys abrogating their responsibilities under SOGA by doing this?

 

My contract is with them, not the manufacturer.

 

If they wanted to take the device, repair or replace, thats their business

- but I shouldn't have to do it for them?

 

Right?

 

The rest of the story...

 

I knew a little (seriously, just a little) about SOGA

I suggested to Knowhow guy to get his manager.

 

Lady comes over, explains the same thing again and says that's how it's done.

 

I refused to accept and suggested that by sending customers away they were in breach of SOGA and did she really want to break the law?

 

They relented, phoned the help line (who answered "Knowhow" anyway), found out it was closed.

Guy printed out some repair sheet and had me sign and date it and they took the vax there and then.

 

I think that's a small win.

 

Now I'm without a hoover for however long they decide to repair it.

 

PG

[dx100uk]

well done to you.

 

 

as it was an online order

 

 

then the attachment also applies as well as soga.

[BankFodder]

Yes, many of these suppliers managed to pass the buck on their responsibility by telling you to take the item to the manufacturer.

 

In my view this is an extremely unfair approach and it is certainly their way of making sure that they're not bothered with the responsibility of after sales service.

 

The supplier has a direct duty under the Supply of Goods and Services Act.

 

It is completely unacceptable for customers to be required to put money down in advance when their products which are defected or else suspected of being defective are being sent the repair.

 

This will put a lot of people off getting their goods repaired and of course this has the effect of depriving them of their consumer rights.

 

I think that we should be making a big issue of this on this forum.

 

You have now managed to force them to deal with your hoover directly.

 

I would say that it should be ready for you to collect within 14 days. If it is not then if I were you I would be starting action against them.

 

If I were you I would put all of this done in writing to them and at least get the paper trail started straightaway. This is very important. If you start doing anything by telephone then make sure that you have read our customer services guide first.

 

I can scarcely imagine that your hoover will be ready before six weeks or two months – if that. The kind of scenario we get here is that eventually you get a phone call and you are told that in fact the fault is because of your misuse or some other excuse.

 

Get ready to take an assertive approach with these people. We will help you

[ashmk]

Currys are king when it comes to fob off's. You have learned a valuable lesson. Shop elsewhere, John Lewis price match and offer excellent customer after service. (I don't work for them just love to shop there.)

[Oliver Queen]

i am one of them knowhow guys you all love to bag on,

we are told to abide by the procedures that are set out on our intranet,

if the manufacturer insists on repairing the product themselves, we have to abide by that.

 

samsung and asus are notorious for this.

 

we have all been complaining to head office for ages that we should just be able to book a product for repair

and it be collected by the vans and sent to the manufacturer or our repair centre (depending on what needs to be done) from there.

 

very often the knowhow team instore are not only doing repairs, reinstalls on computers, setups for newly bought computers, they are also acting as customer service.

trying to get a balance between all of these can be very hard.

 

the store should've offered to send the item on your behalf tho.

 

only last week i had to call tomtom, samsung and brother to arrange uplift and repair of faulty items.

 

it means that while i'm on the phone, i cant deal with customers at the desk or continue with any repair or setup.

which means that one of my colleagues is having to do this.

 

 

in some stores there may only be one knowhow person on at a time, or in my stores case, we have a short amount of crossover time.

it would all be so much easier if 3rd party repairs could be booked via the til system.

 

i am often very surprised at the amount of times that something is repaired rather than being directly replaced,

but from the retailer and indeed manufacturers point of view,

it stops the amount of accidentally damaged goods being returned as faulty.

 

i hate to say it cos i'm firmly on the consumers side but the soga also protects the seller from being fleeced by the consumer

for something thats been damaged and isnt really faulty.

 

but, if you could walk into a dixons group store with your faulty item and know when it was going to be collected and then returned,

no matter which brand, it would be so much easier.

[SabreSheep]

From Which website

 

Your rights if an item is faulty

 

In the first six months from when you buy something, the onus is on the seller to prove it was of satisfactory quality when you received it.

If the seller simply says the problem must be due to something you've done, it's for them to prove that.

If something is not of satisfactory quality, you have a statutory right under the Sale of Goods Act, to a refund, have it replaced or repaired for free.

You can ask the retailer to do either, but it can normally choose to do whichever would be cheapest.

If the retailer refuses to repair the faulty goods, you may have the right to arrange for someone else to repair them and claim compensation from the retailer for the cost of doing this.

If the retailer refuses to provide any remedy, such as replacing the item, you can either have your money back minus an amount for the use you've had of it, or keep the item and get a reduction on the price you paid.

If you're having problems and the shop won't repair or replace or replace your goods then it should be reported to your local Trading Standards department as they are breaching your statutory rights.

It's worth telling the shop that you're going to do this as this could mean your complaint is then dealt with.

If the retailer fobs you off, or blames the manufacturer, think about using your guarantee or warranty.

------------------------------------------

 

 

The retailer has the obligations to arrange repair/replace, not the consumer. This practice falls foul of the legislation form what I can see of it.

 

 

OG, No matter what the policy states on your intranet, the company must still follow the law. IF the manufactures insist on their own repairs, then that is down to the retailer to arrange, not the consumer.

 

 

Ultimately, when it comes to worrying about the company being "Fleeced" by customers, the retailers themselves are king at selling un-needed insurance and warranty products when they themselves fob off any issues that are covered under statutory rights.

 

 

In this case, the manager relented and offered the OP to do the "Right thing" but the issue is that the OP should not have had to have forced the issue and the Knowhow person should of implemented the procedure OR called the manager immediately instead of fobbing off the OP

[Oliver Queen]

"The retailer has the obligations to arrange repair/replace, not the consumer. This practice falls foul of the legislation form what I can see of it.

 

 

OG, No matter what the policy states on your intranet, the company must still follow the law. IF the manufactures insist on their own repairs, then that is down to the retailer to arrange, not the consumer."

 

sure, of course the store should arrange the repair/refund/replacement, i did actually say that they should've done.

when a manufacturer requests someone call them and go thru a troubleshooting procedure to identify the problem, its often quicker for the consumer to do this directly. i'm not saying its right, but it may be faster.

in the end, what the customer needs is a speedy resolution.

 

examples. customer came to me with a faulty chromebook. my intranet says i need to book it with google by calling a number. customer is ok with this, i book it into our system and the customer tells me they are in a hurry and can i give them a call when its back. yes, no bother.

i call google, they take the serial number, ask me if the customer is present. i say no, they tell me that due to their security questions that they need the owner to be present. i call the customer and they refuse to come into the store as its 10 miles away. they give me their email and password.

i call google again, and go thru the same, but i tell them i have the email and password, but i am from the store that sold it. again they will not talk to me without the customer being present.

i refer this to my manager and feed it back to our internal 'medics'.

the solution is to have the customer call in from home, which requires the item being back in their possesion. i call customer who is now livid, they agree to call if we drop off the laptop. one of my colleagues has to go out and drop of the item, customer calls google, goes thru a troubleshooting and they are informed that packaging will be sent out so the laptop can be mailed back to them, they elect to have it delivered to our store and call the store wanting to have the item picked up again.

by this time, they are sick, we are sick and dont know why i cant just replace the item for them. store manager explains that if we dont follow procedure and we simply replace the item, the store will be charged the full retail cost by google.

the manager will also be subject to a disciplinary by area manager for not following the set procedure.

we picked up the laptop, sent it to google and it returned repaired within 7 working days. customer still unhappy.

 

i had almost exactly the same drama with sony over a ps4 that wouldnt connect to the net. they insisted the customer had to be present to run thru troublehsooting with the unit plugged into a tv and with a working internet connection available.

i said i could set this up instore and ring them back but they insisted the owner was present to answer the security questions about their playstation id.

when i rang the customer to inform them, they tell me they will never buy anything from our stores again.

 

in this situation what do we do?

i had followed procedure and the law but the manufacturer had made it almost impossible for me to abide by the law.

the customer wants a speedy resolution, they are busy and dont have time to wait around in store while i ring and spend however long on the phone. they probably dont have time to do it themselves.

so what do we do? replace the item and have the store charged for it? ok but then how many times can we get away with doing that before sony refuse to sell us their products anymore because we dont abide by their troubleshooting?

 

its a double edged sword, it really is.

and add to that, all the time i'm on the phone abiding by their wishes and the law, other things like repairs and other customers are not being attended to.

 

if i could book the item via our till to be collected with all the other repairs and have a dedicated team at our repair centre that deals with 3rd party stuff, it would help.

 

please dont forget that we are not only working for the company, but we are also consumers ourselves and more importantly, we are fellow human beings and no matter what you may think of me, the company i work for and my job role, we are not immune to insults and it does get to us on a daily basis that you think we dont sympathise, empathise and would like to do 'the right thing'.

 

ultimately, the store manager has the discretion to override the repair journey but they themselves will have to justify it higher up the chain and take the heat for it.

if the likes of google, asus, sony, samsung, tomtom, brother, canon, apple and more would entrust the retailer to either book the repair direct via a web portal or the shop till system, it wuld cause less headaches.

lenovo have just agreed recently to let dixons handle transportation of all repairs instead of me having to call them, go thru troubleshooting and then parcel the item up awaiting dpd.

[Surfer01]

I remember when I had an issue I had to phone the manufacturer however it was on a premium rate number. Does this still happen?

[pgregg]

The helpful link in post #2 from dx100uk on the DSR states that any help phone service must cost no more than a local call.

 

 

Don't know if that is relevant to you.

 

 

Doubt it is in SOGA since most of that really predates premium rate phone calls.

[JoeyJoeC]

I remember when I had an issue I had to phone the manufacturer however it was on a premium rate number. Does this still happen?

 

http://www.saynoto0870.com/ is your friend here.

[ericsbrother]

Some companies like Dyson do have their own engineers and they take over the responsibility from the retailer by mutual consent.

 

 

I dont have a problem with this but I do agree that the idea of being charged a £50 (say) call out charge

if the problem is not a fault is a distinct incentive to downplay a genuine fault and claim it is not found or user error.

 

 

Some manufacturers used to refuse to send out parts to anyone other than one of their "approved" service centres

and thus cause problems for retailers and customers who werent in on this cartel.

 

At least the store did take it in for you.

[pgregg]

Update: New Vax delivered from Currys yesterday. No communication from them, but can't complain - all in all, Currys fulfilled their lawful responsibilities.

 

Just beware if they try to send you to a 3rd party for any warranty issues.